


One of the boys

by StrangeNoise



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Bev PoV, Birthday Party, Eddie Kaspbrak Lives, F/M, Losers Club (IT) Friendship, Post-IT Chapter Two (2019), Stanley Uris Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-12 14:27:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29386284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrangeNoise/pseuds/StrangeNoise
Summary: After spending most of her life with the the other losers as her only friends, Bev is yearning for some female company and decides to spend her birthday befriending her friends' wives...
Relationships: Ben Hanscom/Beverly Marsh, Bill Denbrough/Audra Phillips, Patricia Blum Uris/Stanley Uris
Kudos: 5





	One of the boys

Bev could not remember ever being this excited for her own birthday as she was for her 41st. Maybe decades ago, when her mother was still alive, but that time was hazy in her mind and too overshadowed by everything that came after that. So, Bev simply chose to believe that this was going to be the most excited she had ever been for a birthday and leave it at that. 

And she had good reason to be ecstatic about it, too. Just a few months ago she had reunited with her childhood friends. While that first weekend together hadn’t been great and more traumatizing than anything, the time that came after it more than made up for it. Bev divorced her abusive husband Tom and started dating Ben, who would throw the world off its axis if the current angle of it offended Bev. The Losers club had been reunited and then completed when some mysterious, otherworldly power had resurrected Stan. And even after they left Derry again to live their lives all over the US, they managed to stay in touch. Bev suspected that the others, just like her, felt that they would forget again if they weren’t in contact as much as they could manage. None of them had forgotten anything since Derry and memories of their childhood were steadily returning to them too, but the anxiety remained. 

Therefore, the lot of them kept looking for ways to spend time together – be it online or in person. And what could be a better occasion to meet up than celebrating Bev’s birthday? 

Clearing out everyone’s schedule had been a near-herculean effort but in the end, they made it work somehow. Eddie would have to leave at some point late in the evening to get back home since his wife insisted, they spend valentine’s day together. But that was only a small damper on the situation and quickly overshadowed by the joy of seeing each other again at the cottage Ben had rented for the weekend. 

Bev’s birthday was on a Saturday that year, so they all arrived Friday night to settle in and toast to Beverly at midnight. Saturday began with an opulent breakfast provided by Mike, Bill, and Eddie, before the men left for some activity Ben had planned for them, leaving the house to the women. It was what Bev had asked for. It had been too long since she’d spent any time with people that weren’t the Losers, and she was eager to get to know Audra and Patty, who had been invited along with their husbands. The other Losers would return late in the afternoon so they could all have dinner and celebrate the rest of Bev’s birthday together.

So, after the men were gone, the women got into their swimwear – there was a pool outdoors, but it was far too cold to use so the bikinis were there only to make things feel more luxurious – and grabbed some blankets before going outside onto the patio to get comfortable on some deckchairs out there. 

Bev stretched out comfortably underneath the blanket and she couldn’t have been happier. Even if it were warm enough to lay on the chairs only in her bikini, she doubted she’d be more comfortable than she was right now. 

“So, what’s it like being friends with these guys for three decades now?”, Audra asked, interrupting the peaceful silence. Bev chuckled, looking for the right word.

“Chaotic”, she settled on eventually with a smile, then stretched languidly.

“But you’re not really going to make me talk about the boys when I finally get them out of my hair for once, are you?” 

Audra laughed and shook her head. On Bev’s other side, Patty joined in on the laughter. 

“So, girl talk, then?”, she asked after they had calmed down again, “Haven’t had that in a long time.” 

It was nice like this, Bev thought. She couldn’t remember getting together with friends – male or female – without the lingering fear of an angry husband spoiling her fun. Now, she knew that Ben was out having fun with his friends and she was allowed to make new ones while he was gone and when they met again both would be happy. 

“I haven’t done this in so long”, Bev stated after a moment of silence, “It’s all about Loser’s club stuff these days…” 

“Maybe we could talk about your work”, Patty suggested, “I’d love to hear what you’re going to do next.” Audra agreed eagerly and Bev beamed with excitement.

“Well, first of all, I’m getting my own label”, she explained, “And then I’m going to make a collection of all the designs I’ve made in the past twenty years that I loved but was told by a guy that they wouldn’t sell.”

Audra and Patty were supportive of that idea immediately and from there on out their conversation moved from their jobs to men, who tried to tell them how to properly do them and then to how lucky they were to have found the partners they had right now. At some point Audra went into the house and made them the best margaritas Bev had ever tasted, claiming they “can’t have this discussion sober any longer”. 

After that, they talked about this and that – work, in-laws, the destination of their next vacation, movies, and all the things in between. Around noon they went inside for a bit to reheat some of the garlic bread Mike had made the previous night and for Audra to fill their glasses back up. Two margaritas and some garlic bread into the day, the conversation became even livelier, and more than once Bev complained about an aching stomach from just how much she was laughing at one of Patty’s stories about her family or Audra’s tirades about incompetent directors. 

“I love my boys, I really do”, Bev told the others at one point early in the afternoon, “But whether you want it or not, I’m making us do this again. I haven’t had any real girlfriends in  _ ages _ and I’m not letting the two of you go again.” 

“Fine by me”, Audra said and raised her glass in a toast.

“I’d love to do this again”, Patty agreed, raising her own glass with a smile, “To us Loser girls.”

They clinked their glasses and Bev’s heart was so full, for a second she was afraid she was going to cry. For most of her adult life, she had struggled to make meaningful friendships with others, and she had never known why. Now, she suspected that it was her subconscious telling her she already had an amazing group of friends with the Losers. When their group was reunited, everything just kind of fell into place in the same way it had when they were still children. But this hadn’t been forming new friendships but rather reviving old ones. So, now, was the first time in her adult life that Bev felt a genuine connection with someone she hadn’t been friends with since childhood and where she was certain that there was enough common ground to make a friendship last. It was wonderful yet overwhelming and she could only hope that Patty and Audra felt the same way. 

But from how excitedly the two women set up a group chat for the three of them and were already planning what they could do together next, Bev had a feeling that she wasn’t the only one immediately invested in this friendship.

After that emotional moment, the three women had about one more hour to themselves, before they heard the door to the patio slide open between them and then the voices of the male Losers. 

“Beverly! Are you having fun without us? Scandalous!”, Richie was, of course, the first to make himself known, before he flopped down on the end of Bev’s deck chair and immediately made an attempt to steal her margarita. 

From there on out, it took all of thirty seconds for the whole scene to dissolve into utter chaos. And Bev was at the center of it, knowing deep in her heart that this was the happiest she had ever been on her birthday. Right then and there, she decided that, from now on, she wanted to celebrate every birthday like this: Surrounded by friends and the people she loved most in the world. After so many miserable birthdays, the universe owed her that at least, she figured as she sat here, surrounded by old and new friends, and smiled until her face hurt.


End file.
